ABSURDIST

Introduction

ABSURDIST (Aligning Between Systems Using Relations Derived Inside
Systems for Translation) is a computational algorithm that uses
within-system relations to find between-system translations.
While illustrating the sufficiency of within-system
relations to account for translating between systems, simulations of
ABSURDIST also indicate synergistic interactions between
intrinsic, within-system information and extrinsic
information.

The first version of ABSURDIST exploits only one type of within-system
relationship: the similarities between concepts. The semantic
similarities between each concept pairs within a system are measured,
and the two similarity matrices for the two concept systems are used as
the input to generate the mappings between the concepts in the two
systems.

Currently, we have extended and improved the original ABSURDIST
algorithm. The current system, called ABSURDIST II, is an optimization
algorithm using attributed graph matching to find translations between
conceptual systems. It uses information about the internal structure of
each
system by itself, or in combination with external information about
similarities between concepts. It supports systems with multiple
types of weighted or unweighted, directed or unidrected relations
between concepts. The algorithm exploits graph sparsity to improve
computational efficiency. Parameters for running the algorithm are
optimized to achieve better mapping results, as well as improve noise
tolerence, iteration speed, and scalability.

Download

ABSURDIST II is implemented in Java. The most up-to-date version of
ABSURDIST II, ABS2.1, is available for download below. Besides the
major source code implementing the algorithm, the zip file also
includes packages for various testings which were used to produce the
experimental results presented in our papers (see Publications).
Instructions for how to use the code are provided in the readme file included in the download package.
Note: You will need Java 1.4 or above to compile and run the program.Download ABS 2.1

Documentation

Demo

You can run the ABSURDIST II Applet online here: ABS 2.1 Applet.
This version of the applet only allows you map randomly generated
systems. To map systems from input files, you need to run the
application.

Goldstone, R. L., Feng, Y., & Rogosky, B. Connecting Concepts to each other and the world. In D. Pecher and R.Zuann (Eds.) Grounding cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 292-314, 2005.